I'm not feeling fruity! (Twinings Four Red Fruits)

Member Name: beanie85

Product:	Twinings Four Red Fruits
Date:	15/03/09 (212 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Healthy

Disadvantages: Bitter taste, weak fruit flavours, unneccesary packaging

As I am trying to cut down on coffee, I have been buying fruit tea. I have really enjoyed the different fruit teas I have tried but I haven't settled on a favourite flavour or brand yet, I seem to be buying a different kind every time I go to the supermarket! The most recent fruit tea I have bought has been 'Twinings - Four Red Fruits', a fruit flavoured black tea.

The tea comes in a thin cardboard box which opens up at the top. The box has a picture of red fruit on it and a large Twinings logo with 'Four Red Fruits' written underneath.

There are 25 tea bags in total in the box and each one is individually packaged it its own paper wrapper. I think this is quite a waste of packaging, I wouldn't have minded 25 loose tea bags to come in the box as they are. Having them individually wrapped is handy if you want to take one to work every day but I think it is unnecessary and I would still prefer less packaging over the handiness of individual wrapping.

When you take the tea bags out of their paper wrapper, they have a string attached from the tea bag to a paper tab which is built into the wrapper, you can rip this tab out of the wrapper so that once you have finished letting your tea bag brew in the water, you can just pull it out by the string without having to use a spoon, or fingers!

The four red fruits used in the tea are cherries, redcurrants, strawberries and raspberries. Although the tea does taste slightly fruity, I can't pick out any individual fruit flavours and I don't think the flavours are strong enough. If I did a blind taste test I don't think I would be able to guess what kind of tea it is!

The advice on the box is that you let the tea bag brew in the water for 3 - 4 minutes. I tend to leave it in for a little less as I find the tea goes bitter very quickly if the tea bag is left in, it also leaves you with a really bad, bitter aftertaste after each sip which seems to linger. It is not very nice at all. I think it helps if you put in a spoonful of sugar, but I don't see why I should have to do that to make the tea taste acceptable! I prefer drinking fruit tea as it is without adding and sweeteners, and I don't have a problem with other fruit teas I have bought.

The tea is available from most supermarkets. Twinings is a popular brand so the tea is not hard to get a hold of (if you really want to try it!)

All in all I was disappointed with this tea and I won't be buying it again. The tea goes very bitter if you leave the tea bag in for the amount of time stated on the box, but if you don't leave it for very long you don't get much flavour. I can't find a happy medium with this and I'm quite disappointed with it. Not recommended!

Summary: A bitter tasting tea which didn't do it for me!